1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a movable display device having a display body, disposed in front of a chassis, that is tilted so that the tilted orientation can be changed, and more particularly to a tilting mechanism that can tilt a display body in two directions, upwardly and downwardly.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a known movable display device, a display body having a display panel such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) is disposed in front of a chassis, and a sliding member disposed in the chassis is moved in the forward-backward direction so that the orientation of the display body can be changed (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-51712, for example).
With the movable display device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-51712, a guide pin at the upper end of a display body is slidably engaged with a guide groove formed in the chassis, and the forward end of the sliding member is rotatably linked to the lower end of the display body. When the sliding member moves from a retracted position to an advanced position, the display body changes from an erected orientation to a backward tilted orientation, in which the lower end of the display body protrudes forwardly.
With the movable display device structured as described above, an angle through which the display body is tilted backwardly changes according to the amount of the movement of the sliding member. Therefore, the display surface of the display body can be adjusted to a backward tilted angle at which the passenger can easily view the display body. However, to avoid reflected sunlight, a reflected landscape, and other problems, a movable display device is desired that enables the display body to be tilted not only to the backward tilted orientation but also to the forward tilted orientation.
A possible example of this type of movable display device is illustrated in FIG. 12. In this example, the upper end of a display body 100 is pivotably supported by a chassis 101 so as to be rotatable, and the lower end of the display body 100 is rotatably linked to a sliding member 102. When the sliding member 102 is moved forwardly and backwardly from an initial position, the display body 100 can be tilted to both the backward tilted orientation and the forward tilted orientation. Specifically, when the sliding member 102 is moved forwardly (to the left in FIG. 12) from the initial position, the display body 100 can be tilted from an erected orientation indicated by solid lines to a backward tilted orientation indicated by dotted lines. In addition, when the sliding member 102 is moved backwardly (to the right in FIG. 12) from the initial position, the display body 100 can be tilted from the erected orientation to a forward tilted orientation indicated by dash-dot lines.
Another example of a movable display device is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-276769. In this example, an upper sliding member and a lower sliding member are provided in a chassis so as to be movable in the forward-backward direction. The forward end of the upper sliding member is disengageably linked to an upper pin attached to the upper end of the display body. The forward end of the lower sliding member is disengageably linked to a lower pin attached to the lower end of the display body. The upper pin and lower pin are slidably engaged with guide grooves formed in the chassis. With the movable display device structured in this way, when the lower sliding member is advanced while the upper sliding member is stopped at the retracted position, the upper pin comes off a linking portion linked to the upper sliding member and is lowered in the guide groove. Then, the display body rotates around the lower pin and is placed in the backward tilted orientation, in which the lower end protrudes forwardly. Conversely, when the upper sliding member is advanced while the lower sliding member is stopped at the retracted position, the lower pin comes off a linking portion linked to the lower sliding member and is raised in the guide groove. Then, the display body rotates around the upper pin and is placed in the forward tilted orientation, in which the upper end protrudes forwardly.
With the movable display device illustrated in FIG. 12, however, when the display body is tilted to the forward tilted orientation (moved to the position indicated by dash-dot lines, the display body moves so that its lower end is retracted with the upper end of the chassis acting as a rotational fulcrum, so a space sufficient for the lower end of the display body to retract needs to be allocated in the chassis. This is problematic in that a space, in the chassis, in which to place parts is narrowed by the space allocated to accommodate the lower end of the display body.
With the movable display device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-276769, a driving mechanism that operates the upper sliding member and a driving mechanism that operates the lower sliding member need to be placed separately in the chassis. This is also problematic in that a space in the chassis is narrowed by the two driving mechanisms.